At Least 40K Cameras Are Oversharing
This should not come as a surprise to anyone, but probably does. Security researchers have identified 40,000 IoT cameras that can be easily accessed by anyone, with about 14,000 of them located in the US. The unsecured cameras are just about everywhere, from private homes to hotels to industrial sites and the 40,000 the researchers identified are just the minimum number of cameras that can be accessed. The actual number is likely far higher and there are more than just privacy concerns raised by these cameras. Having someone spy on you in your home is horrific, but if consider the implications if someone was also able to use other cameras to follow you around during your daily routine.
The cameras, which can generally be accessed over the web by their uniform resource identifier without the need for any credentials are also in retail stores which offer a wonderful store of information for would be robbers. There is evidence that the insecure cameras in industrial sites have been accessed by foreign governments, the same is true for the ones located in secure areas, of which there are many.
If you have any doubts, check out Insecam for a look at a variety of insecure cameras you can watch whenever you feel like it. Thankfully that site is responsible enough to not show any streams from inside houses or other areas it would be unethical to share. Be assured that there area lot of people, groups and governments that do not have the same standards.
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